Razorpay expands to Singapore, strengthens Southeast Asia presence

BENGALURU: Fintech unicorn Razorpay has expanded its footprint in Singapore, marking its second Southeast Asian market foray after Malaysia. The move aligns with the company’s broader strategy to expand its regional presence, catering to businesses looking for cross-border payment solutions.

Razorpay currently has 50-60 employees across Southeast Asia and plans to double its talent base by the 2025-26 financial year. "We will maintain a mix of local hires and internal transfers, but the majority of our team in Singapore will be locals," Shashank Kumar, Razorpay’s co-founder and MD, told TOI. "With over a thousand customers and nearly $1 billion in GMV (gross merchandise value) in Malaysia, we gained the confidence to scale further in Southeast Asia. The 3% market share we captured in Malaysia demonstrated that our solutions can drive real impact. Singapore is the natural next step for us,” he said.

Singapore has demonstrated a 97% adoption rate in digital payments and its financial sector is expected to reach $180 billion by 2029. However, businesses continue to face high transaction costs of 4%-6% on cross-border payments, limiting their scalability. Razorpay aims to reduce these costs by 30% to 40% through its AI-powered payment suite. "Singapore’s payments landscape is highly evolved but still fragmented when it comes to cross-border transactions," Kumar said. "Many businesses here, especially SMEs, operate beyond domestic borders from day one. Our expertise in building cost-efficient, scalable financial infrastructure in India will allow us to create meaningful impact in Singapore as well.”

Razorpay’s Southeast Asia expansion is not limited to Singapore. "We are actively looking at Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam as the next destinations,” he said.

The company is betting big on its international operations to become a significant revenue contributor. "From a 10-year perspective, we expect our international business to be as large as our India operations, which currently handle $180 billion in annual payment volumes," Kumar added.